TO AZOF AND TAGANROG. 401 
country of the Comani: this is all flat, and has ch ai\ 
four great rivers. The first is called Neper '- y 
(Borysthenes); the second is called Don (Tanais); 
the third is named Volga (Rha); the fourth is 
denominated Jaec (Rhymnus).” Thus it appears 
that the Comani, the ancestors of the Cossacks, 
had established themselves as far to the west- 
ward as the Dnieper, before the middle of the 
thirteenth century; and considerable light is 
thrown upon a very obscure part of antient geo- 
graphy by the documents thus afforded. TV. de n*b ru - 
Rubruquis himself, in another passage of his 
Itinerary, extends their limits as far westward as 
the Danube ; and says, that the whole country, 
from this river to the Tanais, was inhabited by 
them. The western part was called Casaria, 
the country of the Cazars, Cassars, or Cossacks, 
as they are now called. Nothing can be more 
faithful than the account he has left of these vast 
solitudes, where there is neither wood, nor 
mountain, nor stone 2 3 . 
(2) “ Tendebamus reetfi in orientem ex quo exivimus praedictam 
provinciam Casurice, habentes mare ad meridiem, ct vastam solitudi- 
nein ad aquiluuem : qute durat per viginti dietas alicubi in latitudine : 
qua nulla est sylva, nutlus mom, nulltis lapis. Herba cst optima. 
In bae solebant pascere Comani, qui dieuntur Capchat. A Teutonieis 
ver b dieuntur Valani, et provincia Valama. Ab Isidoro vero dicitur a 
flumine Tanai usque ad paludes Meotidis et Danubium Alania. Et 
durat ista terra in longitudine a Danubio usque Tanaim — qu.e tota 
inhabitabatur a Coma ms.” Hakluyt, t ml. 1. p. 80. 
VOL. X. 2D 
